Back in July, we wrote a piece suggesting Klay Thompson would thrive in a role off the bench.
Hold on, don’t freak out. Thompson would still get his 34 minutes, but you stagger his minutes so he can dominate the ball in the second and third quarters going against other team’s backups. And he’d still finish games in the fourth.
The feedback we got on our KNBR Facebook page? Pure outrage.
How could you not start the best shooting guard in the league? Thompson’s a menace on a defense who can shut down all-stars. Some already consider him one of the best three-point shooters in NBA history.
As Steve Kerr gets set to tinker with lineups and rotations in the preseason — starting Saturday against the Raptors in Vancouver — another voice is arguing Thompson off the bench is worth experimenting with.
David Thorpe is a private basketball coach and his client list includes Luol Deng, Courtney Lee, Jrue Holiday, Udonis Haslem and Omri Casspi. Thorpe sees the benefits of having Thompson coming off the bench and explained why on the True Hoop Podcast.
“If these guys were all stocks, we’d be shorting Klay Thompson,” Thorpe said. “They say there’s only one basketball to go around, and of course it’s true. Klay is one of those guys that needs touches, because he’s such an elite shooter. Elite shooters need to have the ball in their hands some. Even though he says he’s not going to sacrifice — it doesn’t matter if defenses send their resources to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, they still are open. You can’t guard those guys. Nor do you want them to deflect a little bit towards Klay.”
If Kerr made this decision, Thorpe says Thompson would earn some hardware at the end of the season.
“I think he’d be the easy Sixth-Man of the Year,” Thorpe said. “He’d still finish games with the starting group. I’m not saying they should do it all year. They should look at it and see. And if you get him a ton of shots in the second quarter, and in the mid-late third quarter, then when he’s in there for the fourth quarter and he’s not touching the ball unless he’s wide open, he’ll at least have been in the flow of the whole game. I see a bunch of games this year where he’s not going to be in the flow much.
“They should play with it. Take him out after 4-6 minutes, sometimes don’t start him. Play with it and see. I mean, come on, Manu Ginobli is easily a first-ballot Hall of Famer and look what happened to that franchise when he agreed to come off the bench.”
Monitor the Klay Thompson situation in the preseason. Thorpe makes some very valid points about maximizing your resources throughout an entire 48 minute NBA game.
Who would replace him in the starting lineup? Maybe Ian Clark, maybe Patrick McCaw if he develops that quickly. Don’t expect Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston to start, either.
